Some Recollections From Kendog ...

Ken McKnight wrote after we ran the shot of Greg Liddle's early 70's showroom in the previous post...

 

The bottom board I believe was the one Greg made for me to take to school at Cal Western. Seems to me I had it built around June/July and went off to Cal WeeWee in early September. This was a great board 5'10" and wide, wide, wide.  I surfed some insane waves at the Cliffs that winter on it. Really big Newbs and one huge day at Garbage that I won't ever forget. Oh yeah, and no leashes. Then took it to Rincon, El Cap, etc. on the breaks. Clear bottom, all blue top. Wow! I think that is my board in the photo.

Giant fin, super flexy, I had Dirt sand super thin so you could almost bend the fin tip to the rail. I want to say it may have been a 16" fin. Greg was huge on fin flex then on those super short boards.

That was a magic board for those times. So small and yet had a real hull bottom to it. I switched to clear boards after Greg said they would be cheaper. The rest of my hulls went 6'0" to 6'6" for the next five years. Those boards were so good. I remember the day Dave and I surfed Garbage, and it was big.

One other thing. The fins were so thin that they always had stress marks on them at the tip and the fin boxes had stress marks on the ends where they were glassed in. I always kinda thought it was a badge of honor to have the spider veins there. We, Patton, Dave, Steve always said it was cause we turned so hard the fin stress would crack the box.

Below is a photo of one of those boards at 3rd Point Malibu (we use to call it twigs) around the winter of 71. Dave shot this and it was later put in a WSA newsletter by Ray Allen.

BTW, Back riding waves again after surgery. The new mat is fantastic. I love it. Thanks.

Kendog